The Latest from Boing Boing

Making, gender, and doing Deb Chachra, a brilliant engineer, teacher and thinker, explains why she doesn't identify as a "maker" -- because when we elevate "makers" over maintainers, carers, and do-ers, we carry on the tradition of elevating traditionally male work over traditionally female work. Read the rest... Britons: we have three days to kill the new Snooper's Charter The all-pervasive spying bill that was struck down in 2012 is back -- the Lords have slammed a version of it into a set of amendments to an anti-terrorism bill that's already in progress, and if we don't stop it, the government will have the legal right to spy on everything you do online, and use it however they want. Read the rest... How to fix copyright in two easy steps (and one hard one) My new Locus column, A New Deal for Copyright, summarizes the argument in my bookInformation Doesn't Want to Be Free, and proposes a set of policy changes we could make that would help artists make money in the Internet age while decoupling copyright from Internet surveillance and censorship. Read the rest... Check out the weird cosplay motorcycle stunts of India’s elite Border Security Force “Mr. Oranv will be the one wearing a plastic peacock on his head.” Read the rest... GOP senator who boasted about her family's self-reliance received $460K in federal subsidies Iowa Republican senator Joni Ernst gave her party's official response to the State of the Union address by boasting self-righteously about her humble origins and how her self-reliant, heartland-state family pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, but conveniently failed to mention that her family's farm was the beneficiary of nearly half a million dollars in federal subsidies. Read the rest... The Soviet space dogs who took giant leaps for mankind Ben Marks of Collectors Weekly says: "Lisa Hix has just written a very cool piece about Laika, Belka, Strelka, and the other canine cosmonauts who paved the way for Russian Yuri Gagarin's maiden orbit of the Earth in 1961. Read the rest... Radical Brownies: girls of color push social justice, not cookies Oakland's troop of Radical Brownies are girls of color, aged 8-12, who learn about the Black Panthers and Brown Berets, and who campaign for body-acceptance and an end to police violence. Read the rest... Celebrate Skymall's demise by watching this classic David Cross standup Skymall filed for bankruptcy today, and will be missed by many--including comedians. Read the rest... “We Should All Step Back from Security Journalism” after Barrett Brown. “I’ll Go First.“ The federal government's case against Barrett Brown creates a very real chilling effect for other journalists who, like Brown, produce work that deals with hacking and hacktivists. Read the rest... Modern ancient jewelry by Heather Roblin Timeless pieces hand-made from precious metals. Do want. Read the rest... Gadgets 023: Teavana PerfectTea Tea Maker, Bodum Assam Tea Press, and Hario coffee products This week Mark and Jason compare tea makers and Xeni talks about her Hario Japanese coffee products. Read the rest... GIF: Airport From “Un gif dans ta gueule.” Read the rest... American student arrested for Arabic flash cards in airport after TSA freaked out settles lawsuit America is safe once again for people who like to study foreign languages and read books on foreign policy in airports. Read the rest... Hiker who finished first free ascent of Dawn Wall on Yosemite's El Capitan did it missing a finger Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson recently became the first rock climbers to complete a free ascent of The Dawn Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite. Read the rest... “The Road to Superintelligence,” meaty long-read on future of artificial intelligence “What’s happening in the world of AI is not just an important topic, but by far THE most important topic for our future,” writes Tim Urban. Read the rest... The Je Suis Charlie Humble Bundle Name your price for six titles, including the Wil Wheaton audiobook of my novel Homeland, all money goes to benefit the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Read the rest... Japanese Twitter users mercilessly mock ISIS with memes The terror organization this week released a video showing two Japanese citizens held captive.Read the rest... History of the World in 1,000 Objects History of the World in 1000 Objects opens up with a simple stone handax for cutting and digging made around 1.65-million years ago and ends, 999 artifacts later, with satellites and smart phones. Read the rest... The map of the continental United States contains an elf making chicken The panhandle on Oklahoma is wasted. Read the rest...